About this blog

My name is Bill Hirt and I'm a candidate to be a Representative from the 48th district in the Washington State legislature. My candidacy stems from concern the legislature is not properly overseeing the WSDOT and Sound Transit East Link light rail program. I believe East Link will be a disaster for the entire eastside. ST will spend 5-6 billion on a transportation project that will increase, not decrease cross-lake congestion, violates federal environmental laws, devastates a beautiful part of residential Bellevue, creates havoc in Bellevue's central business district, and does absolutely nothing to alleviate congestion on 1-90 and 405. The only winners with East Link are the Associated Builders and Contractors of Western Washington and their labor unions.

This blog is an attempt to get more public awareness of these concerns. Many of the articles are from 3 years of failed efforts to persuade the Bellevue City Council, King County Council, east side legislators, media, and other organizations to stop this debacle. I have no illusions about being elected. My hope is voters from throughout the east side will read of my candidacy and visit this Web site. If they don't find them persuasive I know at least I tried.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Bellevue Reporter and BCC East Link “Objections”

A
recent article and editorial in the Bellevue Reporter suggests they finally found something to object to about East Link; Sound Transit plans to
locate a light rail maintenance facility in the Bel-Red area.Apparently even the BR found Sound
Transit’s explanation a maintenance yard in Bel-Red would be closer to Seattle
than one south of the city “questionable”.This follows a recent Times article where the Bellevue City
Council expressed similar concerns.

The
BCC should have considerable “influence” over ST decisions since eastside taxes
provide about 40% of their funds and ST needs Bellevue to issue 10 permits to
begin construction.

What’s
remarkable is that of all the possible objections the BCC and BR could have had
with Sound Transit, they chose the Bel-Red maintenance yard location.It should not have been a surprise
since Sound Transit’s 2008 Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) ES-41
and ES-42 detailed their plans for “Maintenance Facilities” there.Where have they been for nearly 4
years?

The
BCC could have used the permitting process to insist Sound Transit consider a
tunnel from south Bellevue P&R through city center. The BBB announced their intention to sue
because of this oversight.They
council surely could have rejected ST demands for an additional $200 million for
a tunnel through downtown Bellevue.Especially since ST apparently needed no extra funding for recently
committing to tunneling from the University Station with Northgate.

The
council also could have objected to Sound Transit decision to reject a BSNF
route that would have minimized impact of street level light rail.Instead they’re currently haggling over
design details that reduce Bellevue’s additional tunnel cost by eliminating features
aimed at mitigating light rail damage along ST route. (Isn’t that generous of
them?)

The
BR and BCC both could have raised objections to Sound Transit’s biggest
oversight of all; their failure to consider Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) on the
bridge center roadway for cross-lake mass transit. .ST knew or should have known that cross-lake BRT had more
than10 times East Link capacity at less than 1/10th the cost.Commuters from both sides of the lake
would have benefitted from the increased capacity.Every east side P&R could have had an express bus route
directly into Seattle allowing commuters to leave their cars near where the
live not where they work.The
entire eastside would have benefitted.

It’s
way past time for the BR to expose these “objections” and for the BCC to use
the permitting process to block East Link.

About Me

My last elective position was class president for 25 “class of ’57” seniors in Armstrong, Iowa. I received an MS in engineering at ISU, worked at Boeing for 36 years before retiring in 1998. My wife and I moved into our current home in Bellevue in 1967 where we raised two daughters. Three years of unsuccessful attempts to persuade BCC to block EL are available on “extended session” meeting minutes. Copies of many were sent to all the media outlets, legislators, and others to no avail. I’m hoping this Web site will convince east side residents to query their own legislators.